Dear colleagues,

It is our great pleasure to announce a new journal, “encephalitis”, and to share this news with all neurologists and neuroscientists. Moreover, my opportunity to serve as the founding editor-in-chief for this journal is a great honor and I appreciate the Korean Encephalitis and Neuroinflammation Society for appointing me to this position.

This journal is born from two continuing streams of academic study. The first one is neuroinflammation and the other is encephalitis. For a few decades, central nervous system (CNS) immunology was regarded as one of the common mechanisms of neurological diseases including acute as well as chronic degenerative diseases. Since researchers’ long-held belief was that inflammatory responses could be controlled easily, they focused on neuroinflammation in nearly all kinds of neurologic diseases. However, excluding a few diseases such as multiple sclerosis and other some immunologic CNS diseases, we have recognized that neuroinflammation is only a part of disease, and inflammatory reactions are complex and thus, carefully targeted treatment is warranted. Encephalitis is a challenging disease for all neurologists. The first decision is whether the disease is infectious or noninfectious, which though it looks like an easy distinction, is definitely not that easy. The potential hope has been that the diagnostic yields for infectious organisms have been improved by novel technologies. However, in cases when noninfectious etiologies are suspected, diagnosis is a bumpy ride. Recent discovery of numerous autoantibodies and methods to detect these could help classify diseases more clearly and improve clinical outcomes, which deepen our knowledge of neuroimmunology.

Since the birth of the Korean Encephalitis and Neuroinflammation Society in 2013, core members in this society have put a lot of effort into uncovering the evidence for encephalitis and neuroinflammation that is relevant to diagnosis and treatment. Personally, I hope both basic researchers and clinicians who investigate encephalitis and neuroinflammation will actively submit articles and serve in the peer-review process. Novel basic or translational trials are welcomed, even if negative results are obtained. According to our aims and scope, this journal does not restrict articles on encephalitis but, can accept a broad range of all neuroinflammatory studies, which reveal the roles of inflammation in general neurological diseases. I look forward to meeting you as authors, reviewers, and readers in this journal soon.

With best regards,

Kyung-Il Park

Editor-in-chief, encephalitis